Jeremiah 22:5

But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) I swear by myself.—The formula is an exceptionally rare one, but meets us in Genesis 22:16. In Deuteronomy 32:40 the came thought is embodied in the language of the loftiest poetry. The principle in both cases is that on which the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews dwells in Jeremiah 6:13. Men swear by the greater, but God can swear by nothing greater than Himself.

This house.—The context determines the application of the word as meaning the king’s palace, not the Temple.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

22:1-9 The king of Judah is spoken to, as sitting upon the throne of David, the man after God's own heart. Let him follow his example, that he may have the benefit of the promises made to him. The way to preserve a government, is to do the duty of it. But sin will be the ruin of the houses of princes, as well as of meaner men. And who can contend with destroyers of God's preparing? God destroys neither persons, cities, nor nations, except for sin; even in this world he often makes it plain for what crimes he sends punishment; and it will be clear at the day of judgement.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Go down - i. e., from the temple to the king's house. Compare 2 Chronicles 23:20.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. I swear by myself—(Heb 6:13, 17). God swears because it seemed to them incredible that the family of David should be cast off.

this house—the king's, where Jeremiah spake (Jer 22:4).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

By hearing the prophet meaneth hearkening to and obeying. God accounteth us to hear no more than we practise. If (saith the prophet) you will not execute judgment, &c., I give you the greatest assurance imaginable that this noble house of David shall become a desolation. The apostle saith that God, because he could swear by no greater, sware by himself. The end of an oath is, the confirmation of a thing where any doubt of the truth of it, or any have strife about it. Sinners finding in themselves a difficulty to believe God upon his word, revealing his will against the interests of their lusts, the Lord is brought in as swearing, not by a greater, (that is impossible,) but by himself, that the house of David, or the house of Israel, or his own house, the temple, (though the first seems most probable to be here meant, which seemeth to be the house mentioned Jeremiah 22:4, through the gates of which kings should enter, riding in chariots and on horses,) should be made desolate.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But if ye will not hear these words,.... Will give no attention, and yield no obedience to them:

I swear by myself, saith the Lord; and by a greater he cannot swear; and that is the reason why he swears by himself, Hebrews 6:13; and as, when he swears to a promise, it shows the immutability of it, the certainty of its performance, and that it is irreversible, and never repented of, nor revoked; so it is when he swears to a threatening. The Targum is,

"by my word I:swear:''

that this house shall become a desolation; meaning not the temple, nor the city, but the king's palace.

Geneva Study Bible

But if ye will not hear these words, I {b} swear by myself, saith the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.

(b) Showing that there is no one greater than he is, He 6:13 and that he will most certainly perform his oath.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. I swear by myself] For comment on this as the most solemn and binding form of oath, see Hebrews 6:13-18. The form is repeated in Jeremiah 49:13, and occurs besides in Genesis 22:16; Isaiah 45:23, and a cognate expression is found Jeremiah 51:14; Amos 6:8.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - I swear by myself. "Because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself" (Hebrews 6:13). A synonymous expression is, "As I live, saith Jehovah" (ver. 24). Jeremiah 22:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The king is warned against injustice, and the violent oppression of the poor and defenceless. - Jeremiah 22:1. "Thus said Jahveh: Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, Jeremiah 22:2. And say: Hear the word of Jahveh, thou king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people, that go in by these gates. Jeremiah 22:3. Thus hath Jahveh said: Do ye right and justice, and save the despoiled out of the hand of the oppressor; to stranger, orphan, and widow do no wrong, no violence; and innocent blood shed not in this place. Jeremiah 22:4. For if ye will do this word indeed, then by the gates of this place there shall come in kings that sit upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people. Jeremiah 22:5. But if ye hearken not to these words, by myself have I sworn, saith Jahve, that this house shall become a desolation. Jeremiah 22:6. For thus hath Jahveh said concerning the house of the king of Judah: A Gilead art thou to me, a head of Lebanon; surely I will make thee a wilderness, cities uninhabited; Jeremiah 22:7. And will consecrate against thee destroyers, each with his tools, who shall hew down the choice of thy cedars and cast them into the fire. Jeremiah 22:8. And there shall pass may peoples by this city, and one shall say to the other: Wherefore hath Jahveh done thus unto this great city? Jeremiah 22:9. And they will say: Because they have forsaken the covenant of Jahveh their God, and worshipped other gods and served them."

Go down into the house of the king. The prophet could go down only from the temple; cf. Jeremiah 36:12 and Jeremiah 26:10. Not only the king is to hear the word of the Lord, but his servants too, and the people, who go in by these gates, the gates of the royal castle. The exhortation: to do right and justice, etc., is only an expansion of the brief counsel at Jeremiah 21:12, and that brought home to the heart of the whole people in Jeremiah 7:6, cf. Ezekiel 22:6. The form עשׁוק for עושׁק, Jeremiah 21:12, occurs only here, but is formed analogously to גּדול, and cannot be objected to. אל־תּנוּ is strengthened by "do no violence." On "kings riding," etc., cf. Jeremiah 17:25. - With Jeremiah 22:5 cf. Jeremiah 17:27, where, however, the threatening is otherwise worded. בּי , cf. Genesis 22:16. כּי introduces the contents of the oath. "This house" is the royal palace. לחרבּה as in Jeremiah 7:34, cf. Jeremiah 27:17. The threatening is illustrated in Jeremiah 22:6 by further description of the destruction of the palace. The royal castle is addressed, and, in respect of its lofty situation and magnificence, is called a Gilead and a head of Lebanon. It lay on the north-eastern eminence of Mount Zion (see on 1 Kings 7:12, note 1), and contained the so-called forest-house of Lebanon (1 Kings 7:2-5) and various other buildings built of cedar, or, at least, faced with cedar planks (cf. Jeremiah 22:14, Jeremiah 22:23); so that the entire building might be compared to a forest of cedars on the summit of Lebanon. In the comparison to Gilead, Gilead can hardly be adduced in respect of its great fertility as a pasturing land (Numbers 32:1; Micah 7:14), but in virtue of the thickly wooded covering of the hill-country of Gilead on both sides of the Jabbok. This is still in great measure clothed with oak thickets and, according to Buckingham, the most beautiful forest tracts that can be imagined; cf. C. v. Raumer, Pal. S. 82.

(Note: In 1834 Eli Smith travelled through it, and thus writes: "Jebel 'Ajlun presents the most charming rural scenery that I have seen in Syria. A continued forest of noble trees, chiefly the evergreen oak, covers a large part of it, while the ground beneath is clothed with luxuriant grass and decked with a rich variety of wild flowers. As we went from el-Husn to 'Ajlun our path lay along the summit of the mountain; and we often overlooked a large part of Palestine on one side and the whole of Haurn." - Rob. Phys. Geog. p. 54.)

אם לא is a particle of asseveration. This glorious forest of cedar buildings is to become a מדבּר, a treeless steppe, cities uninhabited. "Cities" refers to the thing compared, not to the emblem; and the plural, as being the form for indefinite generality, presents no difficulty. And the attachment thereto of a singular predicate has many analogies in its support, cf. Ew. 317, a. The Keri נושׁבוּ is an uncalled for emendation of the Chet. נושׁבה, cf. Jeremiah 6:5. - "I consecrate," in respect that the destroyers are warriors whom God sends as the executors of His will, see on Jeremiah 6:4. With "a man and his weapons," cf. Ezekiel 9:2. In keeping with the figure of a forest, the destruction is represented as the hewing down of the choicest cedars; cf. Isaiah 10:34. - Thus is to be accomplished in Jerusalem what Moses threatened, Deuteronomy 29:23; the destroyed city will become a monument of God's wrath against the transgressors of His covenant. Jeremiah 22:8 is modelled upon Deuteronomy 29:23., cf. 1 Kings 9:8., and made to bear upon Jerusalem, since, along with the palace, the city too is destroyed by the enemy.

From Jeremiah 22:10 onwards the exhortation to the evil shepherds becomes a prophecy concerning the kings of that time, who by their godless courses hurried on the threatened destruction. The prophecy begins with King Jehoahaz, who, after a reign of three months, had bee discrowned by Pharaoh Necho and carried captive to Egypt; 2 Kings 23:30-35; 2 Chronicles 36:1-4.